Game indicator or scoreboard or the like



Dec. 25, 1945., W. l. SMITH 2391,52@

GAME INDICATOR OR SCORE BOARD OR THE LIKE Filed June 22, 1942 INVENTOR. 'a W12 1 MM ./feyw SMV' 7W.

ATTO?? N EVS.

Patented Dec. 25, 1945 lUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAME INDICATOR OR SCOREBOARD OR THE LIKE William Irven Smith, Lockland, Ohio Application June 22, 1942. Serial No. 447.947 5 Claims. (Cl. 273-130) My invention relates to same indicators or score boards for use in the positioning o! indicia on a board in scoring or in actually playing the game.

It is an object of my invention to provide a board and mechanism wherein by manual operation different numerals or other type of indicia may be placed in numerous predetermined positions upon the board without the use oi' a pencil or other marking device, and may be manually removed therefrom, either leaving no indicia or substituting other indicia therefor.

A further object of my invention is to provide a board of the above type which is extremely compact and relatively inexpensive to construct.

A further object of my invention is to provide a board as above described, and which has an additional independent mechanism which upon manual actuation acts on all oi the indicia positions end returns them to Some predetermined series or set of blanks.

In describing my invention I will do so with a tick-tack-too board where my novel mechanism is used for placing the well known Xs or Os in the dinerent squares oi the ruled board by inanuai operation, and without the necessity ci' a pencil or similar means. Upon the completion oi a game, by actuating manually an independent separate mechanism. all of the indicia actuators are returned, so as to show a blank board :as at the beginning of the game and preparatory to commencing a second game. y

While will describe my mechanism as applied to a tick-taclz-too game, it is to be understood that it may be applied to other uses such as score boards, game indicators, score keepers or the iilte, as will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

These and other objects of my invention which will be set forth hereinafter, or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, l accomplish by that certain constru- 'tion and arrangement oi parts of which i: shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is now made to the drawing which forms a part hereof, in which:

Figure i is a plan view of my novel invention as exemplified in a ticl-r-tacli-too game with portions cut away to show the underlying mechanism.

Fig. 2 is a portion oi a cross section taken on the section line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the mechanism which returns the indicio. actuating mechanism to a predetermined position.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one oi the indicia carrying disks.

. Fig. 5 is a perspective view oi the bottom oi the disk shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the portion broken away of the disk which actuates the mechanism of Fig. 3. v

Briefly in the practice ci my invention, I provide a nat base preferably formed of heavy paper board or any similar still? material, and on which is pivotally mounted a series oi revolvable disks. Covering these disks is a cover :formed oi paper board and having windows which are positioned over a portion oi the underlying disks. In other words, the disks are sandwiched between the base and the cover, and the pivots for the disks are journaled in both the cover and the base. i provide upstanding pins on the upper face oi the disks which project through arcuate slots in the cover above the windows. The indicia is so arranged on the disks that by :moving the pins in the slots, diderent indicia appears under the windows.

In order to brins ail the disks hach to some predetermined position ior the commencing oi? a new game, or for any other purpose, i provide a fiat sheet of paper board which is preferably positioned directly under the dislrs and against the upper surface of the hase. This sheet has cam holes which receive does carried on the baci-7. of the disks. The cam holes are so congured in reference to the dogs that upon sliding the sheet, all the disks are turned bach to a predetermined position. in my preferred construction i; use another disk to acutate the sheet.

Referring to the drawing, i provide the base i upon which is placed the circular1 disks 2. The disks have a pivot pin d running through their centers which are journaled in holes l in the base i..

overlying the'dislrs and spaced from the base i by means of a strip is a cover Preferably this cover extends completely over the base as well as the disks. There is a hole 'i in the cover in Iwittlich the other end of the pivot pins 3 are journeled. ldy this construction the disks 2 are sandwished between the base and the cover, and may readily revolve on their pivots in the face oi the cover t and positioned over a portion ci the disks, i provide windows Arouately configured around the hole 'i as a center,

Uli

provide in the cover, slots Upwardly projecting irom the disks i?, i provide a pin l@ which projects through the slots d of a sumcient distance to be easily grasped by the fingers. 0n the face oi the disks. 2 I provide indicia il and l2. which in my preferred construction, are positioned diametrically opposite each other and normal to the radius ir. the plane of the projecting pin I0, so that as is apparent, whenthe pin I is midway between the ends of the slot 9, the window 8 is over a blank portion of the disk, but when the pin I0 is pushed to the left end of the slot 9, the indicia I2 consisting of a X appears in the window 8, (note the lower right hand disk in Fig. 1); while if the pin III is pushed to the right of the slot 9, the other indicia II, consisting of an O appears under the window 8 (see upper right-hand disk, Fig. 1).

In order to clear the board and remove all indicia from all oi the windows on the board, I provide a sheet of paper board or other stiff material I3, which is preferably sandwiched between f the lower face of the disks 2 and the upper face of the base I, as may be seen in Fig. 2. The sheet I3 has a series of cam holes I4, for each of the disks 2. 'Ihe sheet I3 is slidable in a vertical direction as shown in my modification in Fig. 1, and its sliding position is maintained and limited by spacers or blocks 5, betweenV the cover 6 and the base I, as is apparent in Fig. 1.

In order to slide the sheet I 3, I provide a disk IB at the top of my board. The disk I5 is revolv able and held in position in the same manner as the disks 2. There is a pin I6 projecting upwardly from the disk I5, through an arcuate slot I'I, in the cover '6, somewhat similar to the construction of the other disks. However, the pin I6 has a downwardly projecting portion I8. wlhich projects below the disk I5 and engages in a T slot I B, on the top portion of the sheet I3 (see Fig. 3). By this construction it is apparent that upon movement of the pin I8. from one end ofthe slot I1 to the other, the sheet I3 is moved upwardly and then moved back into itsl original position.

Upon the bottom face of the disks 2, I place a` wedge shaped dog 2t, which at all times is contained within the cam holes Id. The cam holes Id are so conngured as shown in Fig. 3, that the disk 2 may be revolved a quarter turn in either direction without encountering a surface of the cam holes when the sheet 3 is in its lowered position. However, when the sheet 3 is moved upwardly the surface of the cam holes I t actuate the dogs 2U, so as to revolve the disks until they are in the lower portion Ida of the cam holes IB. By placing the dogs 20 in a predetermined posi'- tion on the bottom of the disk in relation to the indicia II and I2 on the upper face of the disk. all the disks are forced to revolve to a predetermined position upon movement of the sheet I3 by means of the pin I 5.

In the embodiment shown, I have placed the dogs 20 directly under the actuating pin I0 of the disks'2, and I have placed my indicia II and I2 diametrically opposite each other` on the face of the disk 2', and normal to the radius in the plane of the actuating pin I0. By this construction it will be apparent that the actuation of the sheet' I8 will revolve all of the disks in such a manner that their pins I0 are centrally located in the slots 9,-* and the portions of the disks 2 under the windows 8 will be blank. This clears the board for the commencement of a game.

In order to play the game, the player by means of his fingers, moves the pin I0 in its slot 9, either to the right or to the left depending upon whether heis placing Os or Xs in the windows in the board. This procedure is followed by each player until the game is won. Then the board is cleared as above described by moving the pin IByfrom one end of the slot I1 to the other.

In the embodiment I have described, I have found it advantageous to place two extra disks 2| at the bottom of th'e board and directly sandwiched between the base I and the cover E, with a portion of the block 5 cut away. There are windows placed over a portion of these disks, and the edges project beyond the periphery of the board. so that they may be moved by the finger. These disks 20 merely carry members for use in scoring the respective games.

While I have described my construction as preferably made of paper board, it isl apparent that any other still.' material may be used, and the disks themselves may be formed of plastic, metal or paper board, as well as the remaining parts of the device itself.

As heretofore stated, while I have described my invention as applied to the tick-tack-too game, it may have numerous other uses, wherein the placing of numerals or indicia in predetermined positions or windows on a v...lard is desirable.

It is to be understood that different forms of my preferred form may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: v

1. An indicator for use in a game comprising a base, and a cover revolvable disks sandwiched between said base and cover and pivoted thereto, pins on said disks projecting through substantially semi-circular slots in said cover. windows in said cover positioned diametrically opposite said slots and over a portion of said disks, at least two diametricaliy opposed indicia on said disks normal to the radius from which the pins project and smaller than said windows so that movement of said pins to either end of th'e slots will place one or the other of the indicia behind the windows, while positioning the pins midway in the slots will hide both indicia behind the cover. l

2. An indicator for use in a game comprising a base, and a cover revolvable disks sandwiched between said base and cover and pivoted thereto, pins on saiddisks projecting through' substantially semi-circular slots in said cover, dogs on the rear of said disks windows in said cover positioned diametrically opposite said slots and over a portion of said disks, at least two diametrically opposed indicia on said disks normal to the radius from which the pins project and smaller than said windows so that movement of said pins to either end of the slots will place one or the other of the indicia behind the windows, while positioning th'e pins midway of the slots will hide both indicia behind the cover. and a separate means actuatable to revolve the disks to said pins midway position comprising a sliding sheet having a cam hole receiving the dogs on the surface of said disks. e

3. A score board or the like comprising a relatively flat base, revolvable disks carrying indicia mounted thereon and having dogs on the other side thereof, a cover having windows positioned over a portion of said disks, means on said disks projecting through said cover for revolving the same, and a single means actuatable to revolve all disks to a predetermined position comprising a slidable fiat sheet having cam holes cooperating with the dogs on -the disks.

4, A score board or the like comprising a relaascuas tively fiat base, revolvable disks carrying indicia mounted 'thereon and dogs upon the other side oi' said disks. s cover having windows positioned over a portion oi' said disks, means on said disks projecting through' said cover for revolving the same and a single means actuatable to revolve all disks to a predetermined position, said ilrst means for revolving said' disks comprising pins on the same projecting through arcuate slots in said cover and said single actuating means oomprising a. slldable sheet having cam holes coopgrating with the dogs on the disks,

5. A scoring mechanism or the like comprising a base, disks carrying indicia. pivoted on said bases cover over said disks having windows positioned over a portion only of said disks, pins projecting from said disks and through arcuate slots in said cover for manually revolving the same, and a slidabie fiat sheet having cam holes contacting a surface oi said disks, dogs on said disks positioned in said cam holes so that sliding said sheet revolves said disks to a predetermined position.

WILLIAM RVEN SMITH. 

